My take: The drug wars are an American fabrication, meaning we pay for it, to further the fascist ideals of the previous administration. Operation Intercept will now require all persons passing from northern Baja to southern Baja to be finger printed at the state line in Guerro Negro where, thanks to the good old US, satellite computers will be installed to turn away the baddies. So if you have a felony, misdemeanor or too many parking tickets you may be turned back (or worse) to return the 500 miles to San Diego. Big Brother must watch the tourists. Cost 1.2 billion (your money given to Mexico to fight the “drug wars”).

The economy: Well as I’ve been saying for a year now, just read Naomi Klein’s book, “Shock Doctrine, the Rise of Disaster Capitalism” and you’ll realize the intentions of corporate world “full spectrum domination”. And for a real fun read try, Derrick Jensen’s “endgame, Vol 1, The Problem of Civilization”. (Derrick is a Crescent City boy)

Swine Flu: I hear it was started on an American owned pig farm in Mexico, hmmmmm. I do know that when I’m in Mexico for prolonged periods (like the last 32 years) I avoid contact (like joint passing) with recently arrived folks from the US. Common knowledge down there is that they carry contagious diseases like the flu.

Where does all this go? After reading books like “Shock Doctrine” and “Diary of an Economic Hitman”, I am prone to try and look behind the headlines, the induced frenzy, and no scenario should be discounted as too far fetched. What might the multi-national corporations gain from the most recent “disaster” might not be a bad place to start.

I am not trying to go booga booga with all this…just keeping an eye on all perspectives and offering some food for thought with the links.

cheers sohum (damn, first spring i’ve missed up there in 30 years)

Disappointed by the lack of comments…
“The OMFG moment of the century: Illinois-based Baxter working on vaccine to ‘stop’ swine flu outbreak in Mexico 25 Apr 2009.
Specialty drug maker Baxter International Inc. will work with the World Health Organization to develop a vaccine that could stem [foment] an outbreak of a deadly swine flu strain in Mexico. Baxter spokesman Christopher Bona said Saturday that the Deerfield, Ill.-based company has asked the WHO for a sample of the flu strain. He says Baxter has patented technology that allows the company to develop vaccines in half the time it usually takes — about 13 weeks instead of 26…”

Why is that scary?

“‘This was infected with a bird flu virus.’ Viral Pandemic H5N1 flu threat: Illinois-based Baxter contaminates European labs by error 25 Feb 2009 According to the scientific network PROMED, Baxter International Inc. in Austria “unintentionally contaminated samples with the bird flu virus that were used in laboratories in 3 neighboring countries, raising concern about the potential spread of the deadly disease”. As PROMED reports, the contamination has been discovered when ferrets at a laboratory in the Czech Republic died after being inoculated with vaccine made from the samples early this month. “The material came from Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter, which reported the incident to the Austrian Ministry of Health, Sigrid Rosenberger, a ministry spokeswoman, said today in a telephone interview”, the network-alert-system is quoting. “This was infected with a bird flu virus,” Rosenberger said. “There were some people from the company who handled it.”

‘That mixing process, called reassortment, is one of two ways pandemic viruses are created.’ Baxter admits sending live avian flu viruses to subcontractor –People familiar with biosecurity rules are dismayed by evidence that human H3N2 and avian H5N1 viruses somehow co-mingled [!] in the Orth-Donau facility. 27 Feb 2009 The company that released contaminated flu virus material from a plant in Austria confirmed Friday that the experimental product contained live H5N1 avian flu viruses. And an official of the World Health Organization’s European operation said the body is closely monitoring the investigation into the events that took place at Baxter International’s research facility in Orth-Donau, Austria. [Source: The Canadian Press]”
The India Times explains the pandemic potential of that mistake.
Time magazine, after revealing the incompetence of previous government measures and subsequent deaths from vaccinations, proceeds to pimp for mandatory vaccinations and asking us to forgive the government ahead of time. The FDA approved emergency measures for mass innoculations and changing safety regulations.

Fresh off a “conspiracy” blogsite is this comment:
Robb in Tucson Says:
“April 28th, 2009 at 11:54 am
THINK FAST!!
A study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association indicates that Tamiflu-resistant flu does not make people any more or less sick. But researchers say they’re still in dark as to why Tamiflu-resistant infections are on the rise. A whopping 98 percent of this year’s circulating H1N1 flu strains are IMMUNE to TAMIFLU, compared with only 12 percent during the 2007-2008 flu season.

The trend is alarming enough that Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials have been huddling for the past week to consider whether to adjust the composition of the federal pandemic flu drug stockpile, of which 40 million treatment courses (80 percent) is TAMIFLU, says Robin Robinson, director of the Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority (BARDA), an HHS arm that manages the stockpile.”

So get ready to take a jab from Uncle Sam that doesn’t work, unless a tainted company can produce a new shot in half the time! If all this stuff is true.

The topic I raised in town in a few locations was would you take the compulsory jab?